CALGARY — Two phone calls were placed to Charleston Hughes in late June 2008 that could have had a profound effect on his future.

The Calgary Stampeders should feel very fortunate that their call arrived first.

A couple weeks earlier, Hughes, a talented but raw rookie out of relatively unknown Northwood University — a few minutes away from his hometown of Saginaw, Mich. — had been among the Stampeders’ final training camp cuts, but had been told by the team that should an emergency arise on the defensive line, he’d be hearing from them.

In the days following his release, Hughes started asking himself some very hard questions. About football. About life.

“Oh, yeah, I was on my way to hanging up the cleats,” Hughes, 28, admitted on Sunday. “I started looking for work. It was just one of those situations where you’re stuck in limbo — a lot of players go through it when they leave a team, whether they should continue to search for more opportunities to play football, or give it up.”

With his degree in business management, Hughes started preparing himself for the real possibility that football was done with him, and started sending out resumes.

In fact, he even got a callback with a job offer from Verizon Wireless.

But here’s where fate stepped in — the Stampeders called first with their own job offer. Defensive ends Juwan Simpson (that’s where he made the team as a rookie) and LeMarcus Rowell had BOTH been hurt in the season opener against B.C., and the Stamps were in dire need of Hughes’s services.

Hughes immediately caught a plane back to Calgary and by now, you know the rest of the story: he’s been the Stamps’ most consistent defensive performer since he rejoined the team in 2008 (he would lead the league in tackles for a loss in his rookie campaign), and is in the midst of his finest season as a pro, inserting himself into the conversation as a West Division defensive player of the year nominee.

Well, who knows what might have happened if the phone company had been a little quicker with its phone call?

“It’s ironic, and a lot of players go through it,” said Hughes. “And most of them don’t even get that second opportunity. You see a LOT of good players come and go who just didn’t get that chance. It happens in the NFL, it happens here, where the circumstances don’t work out. I’m very thankful for the situation I’m in and that things turned around for me. I’m just blessed.”

So, it must be said, are the Stampeders, who in Hughes, have a rare breed of defensive end — one who has a wide array of abilities to deal with the run and pass game with equal ability, one with the speed and agility to drop back in pass coverage, and one with the discipline to avoid sloppy offside penalties while still managing to get an amazing burst off the line of scrimmage.

“Considering that we ask him to drop back in coverage 10 to 15 plays each game, he’s played some middle linebacker for us in our three-four alignment — as an overall, complete player, I think he’s the most complete defensive player in the league,” said Stamps defensive line coach DeVone Claybrooks. “When you look at his body of work, it kind of speaks for itself.”

That it does, but because Hughes is asked to show a broad spectrum of defensive skills rather than be a one-dimensional sack machine, he’s had to sacrifice numbers, which might have played a role in Hughes’ surprising snub in the TSN Top 50 poll just prior to the season.

This season, Hughes appears to be making up for lost time. He’s spent more time on the line of scrimmage with Rick Campbell’s defence than he did in the Chris Jones system (when he was dropping back into pass coverage far more often), and he’s benefiting statistically. He matched his career high in sacks (seven) on Friday, and still has five games to play to chase down B.C.’s Keron Williams and his league-leading nine. No defensive lineman in the CFL has made more tackles’ than Hughes’ 37. He’s second in forced fumbles (four, not including the obvious one he forced in Saskatchewan that CFL replay officials shockingly missed) and tackles for a loss (six).

“You can’t ignore the numbers,” shrugged Hughes. “I think I’m top two in a lot of categories, but when it comes down to it in this league as a defensive end, the only thing they’re concerned about is sacks. That’s pretty much my main focus, to get more sacks. I guess none of the other statistics are really acknowledged.”